


Silence

by Unofficial_Doctor



Series: A Chip in Your Lung [1]
Category: Legally Blonde - All Media Types, Legally Blonde - Hach/O'Keefe/Benjamin
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Hospitalization, Hospitals, I basically gave someone a terminal lung condition, I kind of change a character, Illness, One Shot, Sort Of, kind of???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 08:39:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12602660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unofficial_Doctor/pseuds/Unofficial_Doctor
Summary: Elle Woods was not used to silence.





	Silence

Elle Woods was not used to silence. Back at UCLA, there was always noise, with constant chatter in the Delta Nu Sorority house regardless of the time of day, and the campus was filled with the heartbeat of bass from nightlife parties. Moving to the east, she had to adapt to the absence of sound, and she did to a degree. She still kept some playlist she made playing on her laptop whenever the dorm was lonely, as it kept her company with a quiet Bruiser.

  
Things stayed like that until Emmett came into her life. Emmett became her constant playlist; when they first started holding study sessions, she turned off her dorm soundtrack to pay attention to what he said. It started with that first night they held an actual conversation. He poured out his life story for her and then poured out everything she could ever know about law, but slowly she started paying attention to _how_ he spoke. Listening to Emmett’s voice filled her ears with sounds akin to Paulette’s Celtic Moods (which Elle took to listening instead of her pop ballads that used to be in Warner’s name), and she refused to be without a daily dose. That was easy enough; they were always around each other after classes, so naturally, Elle found herself drawn to Emmett to hear his voice for as long as humanly possible. It was something special, littered with minor inflections that mirrored subtle emotional changes, rather than the controlled suave tone she heard from Warner, from everyone, back in Malibu. It was a small but lovely change from what she was used to, and she liked that about him.

  
Elle would give anything to hear that voice again, to hear Emmett again, instead of the white silence she had been living with for the past week. The longest week of her life, living in emptiness so bland and dull and quiet. She had tried to bring color into this void, but no amount of pink decorations could keep the room's resident from sticking out like socks and sandals on tourists.

  
The look didn't suit Emmett; too pale, too sickly, too unlike him. He wasn't even allowed to have his corduroy jacket, the one thing that would provide some familiarity, some comfort to pretend that he wasn't lying in a hospital bed in such a drab gown numb to the world. Maybe he would wake up soon and laugh at his own jokes as she did and they'd go back to her dorm like nothing happened and order pizza and he'd help her edit her legal writing essay like nothing happened. If only nothing happened.

  
The jacket in question was, instead of with its rightful owner, draped on Elle's shoulders as she counted away heartbeats like seconds, each small beep a reminder that she held a life in her hand. She spoke softly as she rubbed circles on the back of Emmett's hand, the hand free of IV tubing.

  
“Hey, Emmett… how's it going?” Obviously, she was met with silence. It was, admittedly, silly how she thought he'd just sit up and talk. He probably wouldn't have much to say anyway, being stuck in a hospital bed every day.

  
So Elle improvised.

  
_Well, it's great to be able to breathe again._

  
“You make it sound like you were choking or something.”

  
_That's because I was. But you've been sleeping on that chair for a week; imagine what that's done to your spine._

  
“It’s only because I've been waiting for you, silly.”

  
_Sorry I'm slow, but lung failure makes it kind of hard to catch my breath._

  
“Oh shut up! We both know you'll be fine, you always bounce right back.”

  
In any other situation, Elle would have looked ridiculous, holding a one-sided conversation and giggling at nothing. At least in a hospital room she was spared the concerned looks, though the sympathetic ones from the nurses weren't any better. Not that Elle hated that; she knew they were just doing their jobs and honestly one of the nurses was always so sweet with her. It was the pang that hit her every time someone checked on Emmett and their faces held a sudden flash of disappointment before the plastered on a smile.

  
They didn't believe he would wake up. The odds weren't exactly in his favor after all. But he had to. He promised. Emmett is a man of his word and Elle would hold him accountable if he broke it. She also had a promise to keep; she's noticed that Emmett needed someone to keep him from sinking in on himself, and Elle took it upon herself to be that someone. And she wasn't one to break promises either.

  
"You better wake up soon because I don't plan on spending the holidays alone." In her head, he had made some witty comment that only Emmett could make and he laughed with her.

  
For a moment she forgot that it was only her laughter bouncing around the walls. It did not last long, and silence hung heavy in the air once more.

**Author's Note:**

> So..... I made an AU (kind of???) for Legally Blonde. I don't want to give too much away here b/c I plan on making a little series with this. But heck if you're impatient you can yell at me through my tumblr @a-weird-blog-in-general. I don't mind. I probably need to explain myself for what I've done.


End file.
